


Response poetry

by tigriswolf



Series: poetry [82]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Poetry, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-11-08 07:12:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20831450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: so, after spending a few months only writing for my dissertation, i decided to write response/reflection poems about some of my favorite poems. they'll be posted here.





	1. After “There Will Come Soft Rains”

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [There Will Come Soft Rains](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/523793) by Sara Teasdale. 
  * Inspired by [Prayers after World War](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/523799) by Carl Sandburg. 
  * Inspired by [Nature Lesson](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/523802) by Christine Heppermann. 
  * Inspired by [Richard Cory](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/523811) by Edwin Arlington Robinson. 
  * Inspired by [Not Waving but Drowning](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/523841) by Stevie Smith. 
  * Inspired by [Introduction to Poetry](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524204) by Billy Collins. 
  * Inspired by [Invictus](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524207) by William Ernest Henley. 
  * Inspired by [Ozymandias](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524210) by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
  * Inspired by [Dirge without Music](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524213) by Edna St. Vincent Millay. 
  * Inspired by [Gone from My Sight](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/524219) by Henry Van Dyke. 

> I'm not entirely how to describe this series? But I realized that I hadn't written anything but academic/dissertation stuff for awhile and wanted to rectify that. Except I had no inspiration for anything so I decided to reread some of my favorite poems and see if it shook anything loose. 
> 
> Considering I wrote 10 poems over the course of a month, it worked. :) 
> 
> I'm not sure if reading the original poem is necessary for understanding my responses, but why wouldn't you read the originals? They're some of my favorite poems. Go read them. I'll wait.

Silence,  
after the final bomb   
falls,  
those who sent it  
dead  
before the cloud  
rises  
covering the ground,  
hiding the sky.  
  
In the silent morning—  
No machines  
screams  
technology   
eating  
the earth—  
  
Rain falls—  
Poison at first  
but after uncounted days  
new grass grows.  
Birds return,  
and insects, and  
slowly,  
softly, softly,  
cleansing rain bathes the world.  
Scars heal over.  
  
Spring wakes.  
Life continues on.


	2. Response to “Prayers after World War”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: Response to “Prayers after World War”  
Written: August 28, 2019 – September 30, 2019
> 
> "Prayers after World War" is my favorite poem, btw. Has been for years. Sandburg wrote it in 1922. Practically a century ago. Of these 10 response poems, this one is the only true answer to the original, I think.

The Great War  
to End All Wars—  
Oh, my dear, my dear,  
there will never be a last war.  
Allow us this single star—  
  
hoping, grasping, reaching,  
this struggle to heal  
  
—let the storm pass,  
and in the calm after,  
let us cling to this one star:  
Let us rest before the next storm.


	3. After “Nature Lesson”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Nature Lesson”  
Written: August 28, 2019 – September 30, 2019

In the wild, the males  
wear flashy colors to distract  
predators. The females: drab, dull,  
blend in to stay safe,  
to protect the nest. Perhaps  
we’ve evolved past that. We  
can all gleam brightly for  
ourselves, to catch a mate—  
  
I don’t want to be  
caught. I shine for myself  
and myself alone. If you  
burn as you chase, batter  
yourself against my apathy, hurt  
your frail, fragile ego—Welcome  
  
to the wild, little boy.  
I’ve learned to be ferocious.  
My bright colors warn of  
my venom and my claws.


	4. After “Richard Cory”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Richard Cory”  
Written: September 6, 2019 – September 30, 2019

The woman on the bus  
every morning, raccoon shadows darkening  
her eyes, constantly yawning but  
never drinking coffee, staring and  
glaring, clinging to her phone—  
  
The security guard at the  
front desk, who doesn’t look  
up, in a wrinkled shirt,  
with wet hair, main-lining coffee—  
  
The guy at the next  
cubicle over always muttering to  
himself, the lady across the  
way with a purse bursting  
with clutter, the other workerbees  
droning every day at the  
office, familiar and friendly faces  
who chat and laugh and  
smile and never truly talk—  
  
And the CEO, dressed like  
modern royalty, stalking around, shouting,  
feared and hated and envied—  
  
Tomorrow morning, while sitting on  
the bus, it’ll be clickbait:  
100,000 workers out of a  
job because the CEO put  
a bullet through his head.


	5. After “Not Waving but Drowning”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Not Waving but Drowning”  
Written: September 7, 2019 – September 30, 2019
> 
> warnings: can be interpreted as suicidal ideation (just like the original)

Try all my life—  
_ fail, succeed_  
_win, lose_  
—every time somehow ending  
and I’m back at the beginning,  
treading water, trying to stay afloat.  
  
Trying, trying,  
swim without ever being taught.  
  
Treading water ‘til,  
exhausted,  
I sink  
  
to tired to continue to try.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Introduction to Poetry”  
Written: September 7, 2019 – September 30, 2019

Tell me what this poet meant by  
This phrase,  
The dash in line 3,  
The tense,  
The pronouns.  
  
Tell me what this poem means  
Objectively.  
The right answer.  
The only answer.  
The answer on the test.  
  
_No._  
This is how you read poetry:  
  
i’ll tell you what it means to me,  
how i feel when i read it,  
how it lingers in my mind—  
i’ll tell you how i feel as i  
reread it days, months, years  
later, how it speaks to me anew.  
  
What the poet meant doesn’t matter.  
What matters is what the poem  
means to me  
each and every time  
I read.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Invictus”  
Written: September 15, 2019 – October 2, 2019

Every time  
I find my way,  
the path vanishes in mist.  
Every time  
I think I know what to do  
the situation changes again.  
So many times  
I stumble,  
I fall,  
I swear I can’t—  
  
Take a breath.  
Another.  
Slowly,  
steadily,  
rise.  
  
The path vanishes  
but I know where I want to go.  
Take a breath.  
  
Take a step.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Ozymandias”  
Written: September 15, 2019 – October 2, 2019

Once, they cleared this land for farms—  
Tore down the forest for lumber,  
Planted corn and cotton,  
Built a town over the remnants of old growth.  
  
But the people left when the fields went barren.  
The forest reclaimed the land,  
Swallowed the town.  
  
What remains now?  
The bones of civilization,  
Whatever that was.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Dirge without Music”  
Written: September 24, 2019 – October 2, 2019

The artists, the artisans, poets and  
storytellers, musicians, singers—  
  
voices of generations,  
pulse of society  
  
—when no one listens, no one looks, where  
do they go? Burn the books, raze the records,  
shatter the sculptures—Erase and forget.  
Kill history, rewrite the truth.  
  
But the artists and artisans, poets,  
storytellers, musicians and singers—  
  
Tomorrow’s voices have been born.  
They will record and remember,  
and already, they watch.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: After “Gone from My Sight”  
Written: September 27, 2019 – October 2, 2019

Stand on the seashore and stare out over the waves:  
Sea turns to sky,  
Sky becomes sea.  
  
Wonder:  
What exists on the other side?  
  
Wonder:  
Will the ocean one day take me to the same place?  
  
Remain on the shore, watching the horizon fade.  
The sun sets;  
though the moon shines brightly,  
I can no longer see where the sea and sky meet.  
  
Yes.  
  
One day, I too will greet the horizon  
and I will cross the waves.


End file.
